Photo/Video Essay: Celtics Win in LA

On Sunday the Celtics won their 47th game. That’s it. No extra storylines. This was just another game….Okay, so maybe that’s only kind of true. Which is why I am only going to kind of highlight the more salients parts of the game.

Last but not least, remember those unis the Lakers wore last night? Well they wore them against the Celtics a few years ago too. That game was another Celtics win. Here are some highlights of that game.

Alright, here we go.

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Up close? A bandage. From far away? A crazy birthmark.

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Kendrick Perkins is so dirty. Just look what his telepathy did to Derek Fisher.

That Great Defense clip is really beautiful. As usual, there was a play to be made… Odom is cutting down the middle expecting a Kobe pass, but it sails over his head to Fish. Had Kobe managed to read the situation (the way Rondo always does), he'd have bounce passed it to Odom, past KG's left. It would have to be a bouncing bullet, but it could be done. Odom would have had a pretty clean look.

Some great asides in this clip, including a great view of KG in his absolute PRIME mode – guarding Odom, sliding away to stalk the high post, then down to the low post – a perpetual motion defensive machine.

And you've got Paul hounding Artest so tightly that he gives up in disgust and throws the ball back. Then PP gets the rebound and immediately throws the long pass to the streaking Rondo.

Ray doing his usual excellent hi-energy work guarding Kobe. Loses his footing for a split second, KG right there to back him up. (If you add his continuous running around screens to what he does here on D, you gotta wonder how it's humanly possible to expend THAT much energy in a single game. The guy is amazing, he truly is.)

Rondo sagging off Fish in the corner, figuring correctly that any cross-court pass to the weak side like that would be give him plenty of time to get back – which is exactly what he does, forcing Fish to throw up a prayer as time is running out. The instant the shot goes up, Rondo, betting that there will be a rebound, is off and running to other side.

Lakers still have some energy at this point in the game, but you can see how outmatched they are.

Note how Kobe does that behind the back dribble he does a LOT. In 08 Finals, Cs stole that sucker more than once. (I remember Posey doing it in the middle once.) It's such a weak move… the ball basically out of control and BEGGING to be stolen… that I'm amazed a player of Kobe's supposed caliber still uses it.

It's just 22 seconds of a game, but it's a monumental lesson in great defense, just like the title says.

Jmt

Pass to Odom would have been a good play, but it wasn't necessarily feasible. Throwing over/around the arms of KG is no small task. Kobe might have felt that Fisher was the better outlet to avoid a turnover.

http://twitter.com/BradChampagne @BradChampagne

I hate to say it DRJ, but as much as I despise Kobe, I have to point out that Ray does that behind the back dribble a quite a lot too.

DRJ1

Yes, Ray does it too. And that's part of why Ray is NOT a great dribbler, and I cringe whenever he does dribble into a pack of defenders.

Berkcelt

Am I paranoid, or does it look like KG comes up a limping a little on the very end of that "Great Defense" clip?

http://twitter.com/BradChampagne @BradChampagne

Holy crap, you're right. Hm, he looked fine the rest of the game…

DRJ1

yeah, paranoid

http://twitter.com/BradChampagne @BradChampagne

It did look like he was limping but yeah we're just paranoid. We would've heard something about it and KG was fine the rest of the game. Even caught that pass from Rondo for an alley-oop. We've seen how KG reacts when he thinks something's wrong. It scares him more than anyone.

Jamie

I love how Van Gundy called out Fisher for being a notorious flopper on his 1 on 1 break with Ray. There was no foul there.

NHBluesMan

ok, at the start of this article on thought you said they C's got their 47th WIN, not that they won their 47th GAME, a little confusion on my part, haha

great job with this whole thing! Loved the captions, loved the videos, and did anyone else notice that KG got bloody in the last game they played the Lakers when they wore the throw-back jerseys?

Tom W

I can't remember, did they call a foul on that controlled butt slide? the ref looks like he is putting his whistle in his mouth to call something.